Elijah Craig Of. Small Batch (Brown)

United States, Kentucky. Distillery operational. Owner: Heaven Hill Distilleries

The history of the Bernheim distillery is closely linked to that of the bourbon I.W.Harper, a brand registered in 1879 by the Bernheim brothers.I.W.Harper was until then produced at the Pleasure Ridge distillery. Its casks were stored on its site in a warehouse that, in 1896, burnt to the ground. This gloomy episode led to the birth of the Bernheim distillery, built in 1897 on Bernheim Lane in the south of Louisville. With the arrival of Prohibition, I.W.Harper was declared a “medicinal whiskey” and Bernheim was one of only six distilleries allowed to continue production during this period (1920-1933). When Prohibition was repealed, I.W.Harper and its distillery were sold to two merchants. Deemed too small and obsolete by its new owners, Bernheim was first closed and then reopened at the site of Max Selliger Belmont & Astor Distilleries, renamed Bernheim Distilleries. In 1937, the company was bought by Schenley Distilleries, who expanded and modernized the site. Schenley was in turn then bought by United Distillers (the future Diageo) in 1987. In 1999, Bernheim Distilleries was again bought by the Shapira family in order to set up their Heaven Hill distillery, which had been lost to fire in November 1996.

Elijah Craig owes its name to an 18th century reverend, often cited (although quite likely incorrectly), as the inventor of bourbon - according to the legend, being the first to use, by accident, charred barrels. The brand was trademarked by Commonwealth Distillers in 1960, who sold it to the current owners, Heaven Hill in 1976. The new owners chose to launch a twelve-year-old whisky in 1986, immediately positioning the brand as a top-of-the-range bourbon in a market where they are generally bottled in their youth. Nowadays, Elijah Craig is produced at the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky. The distillery was opened in the 19th century by the Bernheim brothers and was rebuilt in 1987 after United Distillers (later Diageo) bought Schenley, the owner since the end of Prohibition. It was eventually bought by Heaven Hill in 1999 to replace their Bardstown distillery, which was devastatingly destroyed by a fire in 1996.